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In Britain, the summer was marked by a series of social movements, particularly in British transport. One man in particular embodies the revival of this popular mobilization: it is the leader of the British rail union, the RMT, Mick Lynch. It has become in a few weeks the darling of social networks and the nightmare of journalists and politicians, Conservatives and Labor alike. Portrait.
“I’m not a Marxist, I’m a socialist and a trade unionist and what I’m doing here is leading a strike with heavy industrial issues that directly impact our jobs, our working conditions and our salaries”.
Totally unknown until a few weeks ago, the 60-year-old leader of the rail union, with a calm voice and a loud verb, was first noticed by his outspokenness in the media: ” Honestly, is that the level of your interviews? » and his way of putting his interlocutors, including journalists and politicians, in place, using very English humor and self-mockery: « And you have another idea than the strike? I can throw the idea of an old-fashioned clinch if you want, because we’ve been negotiating for two years, frankly I’m open to your ideas ».
Mike Wayne, professor of media at Brunel University in London, notes: For starters, he often smirks in front of the TV cameras and is unfazed, which matters because the media is always trying to trap him. He is very good at dismantling all the most outlandish assumptions and pointing the finger at the real problems, which makes him very popular with the general public who face everyday economic insecurity. People appreciate his outspokenness and the way he evokes a reality that the media and politicians no longer talk about. It’s as if he spoke with the voice of the workers. »
Born to Irish immigrant parents, Mick Lynch grew up with four siblings in a west London suburb in what he himself describes as a slum. However, his story is far from being miserable.
« According to him, the fact of being from the working class, (does not impose) any stigma or opprobrium, explain to usMarc Lenormand, lecturer in English studies and British civilization at Paul Valéry University in Montpellier… For him, it’s a happy childhood, in a close-knit family, against this representation of working classes, working families, as dysfunctional families, as families living in misery. Him, it’s not at all that, it’s not at all his working-class identity, his identity as a child of the working classes of Irish immigration, it’s not a poverty-stricken identity which he would somehow kind emancipated. »
Trained as an electrician, the young Mick Lynch left school at the age of 16 to work in construction. He later joined Eurostar, where he climbed the ladder and where he founded a branch of the rail union, the RMT, of which he became the general secretary in 2021.
« In fact, he is part of a line of general secretaries of the RMT, which is a combative union. It is in a way the continuation of a union tradition. But, shade Marc Lenormand, is also part of a generation of trade union leaders who, at this time, are also asserting a form of autonomy for trade union organizations in relation to the Labor Party. » After the eclipse of trade unionists from the media scene, ” There is something interesting in this return to the political, media and even cultural scene of trade unionists “, he concludes.
The union leader does not claim to be a revolutionary or a spokesperson for the workers, “ all i want in life, he said, it’s a bit of socialism ».
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